Disclosed in International Patent Application No. PCT/AU01/01185 (Publication No. WO 02/29623), filed by the present inventor and applicant, is an invention which provides a web-page (or web-site) search results list which includes either related or unrelated images from the actual web-pages or web-sites identified in a user's search, or images associated with the actual organisation operating a web-site. This assists a user to locate web-pages of interest or relevance to the user by providing images to assess the relevance of web-pages identified in a search, prior to the user having to hyperlink to the actual web-page itself. The present invention provides significant improvements and advantages over this prior invention. The disclosures in document WO 02/29623 are incorporated herein by cross-reference.
A search engine is a program that returns a list of web-pages that match some user selected criteria or search request. Generally, a user connects to a search engine web-site and progressively narrows the scope of the search by selecting category items with mouse-clicks, and/or enters a search term to be matched against a database. Both of these methods are hereinafter referred to as a search request.
Many images are used on web-sites but little attention has been given to-date on perhaps the most potentially damaging aspect of Internet e-commerce. The unauthorised use or application of icons, visual images or visual content has the potential to subtly direct Internet users to web-sites or web-pages which may deceive users into thinking they are genuine.
The term “image”, as used herein should be understood as a reference to any type or form of image, visual content, video, animation, icon, logo, trade mark, advertisement, textual information, or the like.
Despite the extensive use of visual images on the Internet, relatively little attention has been given to being able to authenticate and/or prove ownership of material, for example visual or distinctive text such as copyright material or other proprietary types highlighted by ™, ®, © and the like. People may either ignore, alter slightly or cut and paste sections so as to create the impression of their own self creation or ownership. For example, a web-site, web-page or certain sections thereof can be copied without the owner's knowledge and used for alternate or unauthorised purposes. The continuing use of these practices emphasises a problem inherent in the prior art.
The advent of Internet and video telephones provides a further example of the need for a secure environment when doing on-line business so as to authenticate a visual image which could be of commercial importance, such as indicating an organisation's name. When a user employs the aid of a video telephone and images are used, there is a need to properly identify and establish that the provider of goods or services is bona fide.
For example, a fraudulent web-site which has the appearance of belonging to Ebay™ may show images of a particular item which is for sale significantly below the regular price. A potential buyer perceives a bargain and enters into a transaction thinking that the purchase money is going to a legitimate entity, whereas in reality the money may be diverted to an unauthorised account and the funds paid by the unsuspecting party are lost.
Similar deceptions may target banks, retail stores, ticket agencies for sports or musical events, in fact almost any entity which is engaged in Internet commerce or the like. URL, or equivalently domain name, owners and consumers seek the comfort of conducting genuine searches and conducting business on-line, but are suspicious of providing confidential information.
A hacker or scammer does not need to break into a bank's computer system to steal account numbers and access codes. A fake web-site can be set-up using images, logos, trade marks, slogans, etc., which are either the same or deceptively similar to images on an authentic web-site. It is known that consumers have given financial information to web-sites thinking they were authentic.
Authenticating visual content, for example images, where an organisation has spent considerable money in brand building is an important area, commercially and for consumer security.
Once an URL (Universal Resource Locator) of interest is located the user can mouse-click on an associated hyperlink and be transferred to the actual web-page, which is typically part of a web-site. Once a web-site or web-page of interest is located other options are often available.
In a related problem, it is difficult for a recipient of an email, or other type of electronic document, to authenticate the true origin of the email, or document, and whether or not the email, or document, actually originates from its purported source. A fraudulent email may solicit personal details from a recipient which could then be illegally used, for example to garner information for identity fraud. A fraudulent email, or electronic document, may include one or more fake images, for example a corporate logo etc., designed to deceive a recipient as to the origin or authority of the email or electronic document.
To assist with Internet security a “plugin” or “patch” to a web browser may be employed, and in some cases encryption scrambling functions using secure certificates, eg. using SSL (Secure Sockets Layers), are a further option. A patch or a plug-in is a self contained software component (sub or inner application) which normally adds a new or updated feature to a specific stand alone program, for example RealPlayer™ or Shockwave™. SSL is a RSA (Rivest, Shamir, Adlermin) public key encryption system which provides both encryption, authentication and message integrity. SSL is normally layered beneath application protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, Telnet, Gopher and NNTP. SSL is layered above the connection protocol TCP/IP. When SSL is implemented, Internet communications are transmitted in encrypted form. The encrypted link between a web-server and a browser remains private and integral, essential for the protection of credit card and Internet banking transactions. To obtain a SSL certificate a URL owner is required to provide specific security information and other identification details able to be authenticated.
Public/Private key encryption involves two passwords. One password is private and is used when deciphering a message, the other is public and is used for encryption, often included in a user's on-line signature or plan file. This makes the encryption more flexible, the public key is used to send an encrypted message, then the private key is used to decipher the message. Public key encryption can also be used to authenticate a message where a user encrypts the message with a private key and sends the message, as the public key is able to decipher the message. The recipient is thus guaranteed that the message has come from a genuine source. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and RSA are examples of public key encryptions codes.
In a networked information or data communications system, a user has access to one or more terminals which are capable of requesting and/or receiving information or data from local or remote information sources. In such a communications system, a terminal may be a type of processing system, computer or computerised device, personal computer (PC), mobile, cellular or satellite telephone, mobile data terminal, portable computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), pager, video telephone, thin client, or any other similar type of digital electronic device. The capability of such a terminal to request and/or receive information or data can be provided by software, hardware and/or firmware. A terminal may include or be associated with other devices, for example a local data storage device such as a hard disk drive or solid state drive.
An information source can include a server, or any type of terminal, that may be associated with one or more storage devices that are able to store information or data, for example in one or more databases residing on a storage device. The exchange of information (i.e., the request and/or receipt of information or data) between a terminal and an information source, or other terminal(s), is facilitated by a communication means. The communication means can be realised by physical cables, for example a metallic cable such as a telephone line, semi-conducting cables, electromagnetic signals, for example radio-frequency signals or infra-red signals, optical fibre cables, satellite links or any other such medium or combination thereof connected to a network infrastructure.
The network infrastructure can include devices such as a telephone switch, base station, bridge, router, or any other such specialised network component, which facilitates the connection between a terminal and an information source. Collectively, an interconnected group of terminals, communication means, infrastructure and information sources is referred to as a network. The network itself may take a variety of forms. For example, it may be a computer network, telecommunications network, data communications network, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), wireless network, Internetwork, Intranetwork, the Internet and developments thereof, transient or temporary networks, combinations of the above or any other type of network providing for communication between computerised, electronic or digital devices. More than one distinct network can be provided, for example a private and a public network. A network as referenced in this specification should be taken to include any type of terminal or other similar type of electronic device, or part thereof, which is rendered such that it is capable of communicating with at least one other terminal.
The Hyper-Text Mark-Up Language (HTML) and Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and developments thereof, have made the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW) very accessible. The exchange of information on the Internet is further facilitated through hyper-text documents. Hyper-Text documents are unique in that they use tags to define links which, when selected, retrieve the related information from within the same document or from a new document altogether. The links are defined using HTML which provides a document formatting method which adapts in a consistent manner to any computer on which it is displayed. HTML tags are used to define various components of text, visual or audio which make up a hyper-text document, including such things as formatting and linking to other documents. HTML tags which link documents on one Internet information source to those on another do so by associating a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) with the referenced information.
This identifies a need for a method, system and/or computer readable medium of instructions for facilitating the authentication of a web-site, or at least of images or the like contained therein, which overcomes or at least ameliorates problems inherent in the prior art.
This also identifies a need for a method, system and/or computer readable medium of instructions for facilitating the authentication of an email, or other type of electronic document, or at least of images or the like contained therein, which overcomes or at least ameliorates problems inherent in the prior art.
The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that such prior art forms part of the common general knowledge.